16 Tips for Takeaways: Learning from the Lessons of Lockdown

TO PREPARE

During the shutdown of hotels earlier this year, when only bottle shops stayed open, many pubs turned to selling takeaway food.

A good business looks ahead with scenario planning and a second lockdown has to be considered. So given the hard-earned experience with takeaway food this year, it makes sense to be thinking now about ways to take this to the next level if the worst case scenario eventuates.

On one hand it’s obvious that this revenue stream is a microservice, it’s not your core business. On the other hand, think of it like a removalist company which makes great margins on selling boxes – and many small sales add up.

IDEAS AND CHECKLIST

1. Can potential customers order your takeaway food online?

2. Check: is your takeaway menu up to date on your website? Can you improve it? For example, can you add nutritional information for takeaway items?

3. Optimise your images. Food photos sell food – and sensational food photos sell sensational quantities of food. For example, a schnitty and chips with gravy can look like a mess. With shots such as these, add a garnish to the top (a spring of parsley and a wedge of lemon), then take a wide angle shot so that you bring in the scene. For example, a couple enjoying it on a park bench. Or presented on a wooden plank. Or a close up of the chef’s hands, using tongs to add hot chips to the takeaway box.

the drive-through, or takeaway window? How quickly are staff making the sale.

4. Speed counts. People want their takeaway food to be hot. How quickly is it taking to get it out of the kitchen and into

“A good business looks ahead with scenario planning and a second lockdown has to be considered.”

5. Food delivery also needs to be tested. Do your dishes travel well? What is the quality like after the delivery journey? Think taste retention, crisp or soggy, and how well does it reheat.

6. Do you have the right equipment for a driver to keep the food hot – but not steam it? If you use your own driver/s, is the process clear so that if multiple deliveries are being made in one “drive”, that the last person to receive their food isn’t greeted by something that is cold and soggy?

7. Are you putting a $30 steak into a one-cent foam container? It doesn’t look good and it affects the quality.

8. How’s your coffee? Seriously, you can’t trust your best mate or a supplier ‘friend in business’. They want you to be happy. Find a hard-headed, honest caffeine addict and get them to tell it to you like it is. People do not return for bad coffee. There’s another option nearby in most towns and cities. And another, and another.

9. Consider selling other items. Does everyone rave about the homemade pickles you put in your burgers? And your special mayo? Perhaps you could put together a special kit of these condiments – with a great mark-up – so people can enjoy the flavours at home.

10. Post about the new beer and wines you now have in stock, especially lines that your competitors don’t carry. This is a point of difference. It gets people in. Then its up to you to change their purchasing intent from item to several items.

11. Do something different. For example, can you offer freshly baked bread in the afternoons, when most bakeries are closed or selling bread baked at 4am that day. If the chef is on and not fully occupied, think about what you could trial.

12. Be decisive. If something doesn’t work, stop it. This is no time to be over-investing in good ideas that turn out to be failures.

13. Leverage your sponsorships. Offer a special to the local footy club for the quietest night of the week. Or an aftertraining special in the drive-through if they wear their club guernsey.

14. If things are really quiet, consider teaming up with Groupon or a similar discount vendor. You won’t make a huge profit but if you can attract people to your hotel at a quiet time, it increases your chances of selling them something else… such as a slab or beer or a bottle of wine to have with their meal.

15. People that have moved out of offices need places to meet. Not for a beer – but for coffee. Depending on restrictions, this is a potential growth market.

16. Find other reasons to get people on-site. A Sunday Farmers Market in your car park, that might lead to drive through sales.